PAGE FOUR

m

fHC DAILY REFLECTOR, GREENVILLE, N. C

Tuesday July 12, I960

Tuesday, July 12, 1960

Rigged Show?

I More Ritual Than Charted Course?

5

%

In the usual Democratic national convention, the framing and adoption of the platform never overshadows the selection of the presidential nominee, but in past conventions it has come close to ttracting erjual time and attention.

This year the platform has gone almost unnoticed in the maneuvering during the first stages of the convention.

In 1948 the drafting of the platform and its final adoption climaxed the pitched political battles because the nomination was conceded to Truman before the convention convened. Again in 1952, while there was a battle over the nomination, it was the platform of the party that attracted equal attention and brought from delegates the kind of response that now is seen only when one of the candidates is mentioned. In 1966, the platform and the question of a 'ioyalty pledge commanded the attention of the delegates just as the business of nominating a candidate did.

This year, the framing of the platform has taken a seat far back of the vying of the candidates for the nomination. The weeping, wailing, shouting, gnashing of teeth that in the past has been a part of the drama to ironing out a platform is missing this year. Such outward displays have been confined almost entirely to the campaigns of presidential hopefuls.

A few Southerners have expressed disgust, surprise, and mild contempt at the civil rights plank said to be in the platform. But so far there has been no loud outcry from the South over this platform. It may be that the South has decided to let the northern liberals in the party write the civil rights plank without offering more than mild objections. In the view of some, it is a sign the South has at last decided to cooperate with the rest of the party in WTiting this particular portion of the platform. In the view of

Investments in !^orth Carolina

By lYNX NISBET

INVESTMENT Every once In awhile somebody asks questions about how much the State of North Carolina and its four and a half million residents has invested in land, buildings and equipment at its numerous colleges. hospitals, school and other insUtutions. An accurate answer as to Invested capital could be ascertained by checking records back to the time the State became a governmental corporate entity. That would be a tremendous task, and the resulting information would not pay for the effort, because of changing values since a lot of the property was acquired.

Another problem arises in the distinction between utility value of most State property and the price for which it could be sold on the open market.

One illustration is the 120-year-old captol building. The record is that l^islatures from 1832 through 1941 appropriated the total sum of $331.674.46 for construction of the building. It is entirely probable that since then several times a half million dollars have been spent replacing fireplaces with central steam heat, installing electric lights instead of candles, putting in telephones and more recently air-coiKiitioning units. The property has relatively small cash value for any purpose other than its present use and 'that utility value is so low that the last General Assembly voted four and a half million dollars for a legislative building to serve as an auxiliary to the old captol. Original cash investment in this auxiliary new building is almost nine times the original cost of the present captol.

RECENT-Within the past 15 years, since end of World War II. the people of North Carolina, through legislative appropriations and voted bond issues have spent In excess of $259 million for capital Improvements buildings and equipmentat the State's eleemosynary institutions.

Breakdown on that record shows, in round figures, $51 million in 1947; $82 million in 1949; $4 million in 1951; $41 million in 1953, none in 1955; $40 million in 1957 and $43 million In 1959, During the same period there were State appropriations and bond issue allocations of 3100 million to match local funds for public school house construction $50 million in 1949, $50 million in 1953.

The allocations to State institutions included purchase of

a few, very few, acres of land. At least 79 percent was for buildings and equipment, the real value of which depends upon the use made of the facilities. The net-cash-open-market value of most of these Institutional facilities probably would be a good deal less than their investment cost. The buildings were designed for specific usage and are not worth much for any other purpose.

LAND There is a different situation with raipect to & lot of idle land owned by the State. Almost every meeting of the State Board of Edia:ation and the Board of Conservation and Development must deal with requests to purchase or lease several hundred acres of Bladen county lands to a business group that proposed to grow dewberries on it.

Title to all State-owned land is vested in the State of NorUi Carolina, although control and management of it is distributed among agencies and departments. and values are rising and it has been State policy not to sell any acreage for which there might be future need, excei^ where it is evident that holding the land would retkrd development, or where market value is far above utUity value.

HOW MCH?There are no accurate Inures on how much land the State owns. Dimensions of the institutional property and parks are fairly well established, but large acreages of swamp and forest lands have very vague borders. Nor is there currently a central listing of all real estate owned by North Carolina.

The Department of Administration has been working on such an Inventory for two years, with assistance of the young lawyers in the several counties. The project is well alcmg and before many months a complete record of the exact location and content of all tracts owned by the State can be assembled.

Besides the land to which the State has ice title there are thousands of acres under easement deeds in highway rights of way, on which the State has spent hundreds of millions for bridges and paving. This of course has no market or sale value.

If the State of North Carolina should be forced to liquidate its real estate bids would have to begin at well above a billion dollars for the State to get its money out.

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Others, the South has capitulated so far as the question of the civil rights plank is concerned.

Perhaps the lack of usual concern for the framing of the platforrn this year is indicative of a growing feelingamong th*e delegates as well as the public that the platform* really doesn't mean much so^far as guiding the policies of the party is concerned.

" It is generally agreed that after the election-the platform does not become the yardstick by which the party's elected officials chart their course. Rightly, or wrongly, it may well be that the delegates have at this convention come to the conclusion that the platform is more a part of party ritual than it is a genuine outline of course the nominee is expected to adhere to if he is elected president.

U. S. Protests Begin To Take Hollow Sound

A glib Soviet announcement reveals the fact that another American plane, together with some of its crew, has fallen victim to Russian bullets.

The announcement comes two weeks after United States and other nationsincluding the Soviet Union dispatched ships and planes in an effort to locate the aircraft missing in northern waters.

Obviously, if the Soviets shot down the American plane as they new claim, they knew its whereabouts when the international search was undertaken to locate the plane and its crew. But in the usual communist manner, secrecy was observed and the fabt was not revealed.

What is the United States going to do about the incident now?

There will, of course, be the customary exchange of notes between the United States and the Kremlin. The Soviets make the usual charge of violation of Soviet territory, and *the United States its complaint over the taking of an American plane and more important American lives*

There was a time when such an incident would trigger a serious crisis in international affairs . . . taking nations to the brink of war and even beyond. In more recent years, however, the shooting down of planes by another nationour planeshas become a common thing. The old fear of a major crisis has been overcome. The possibility of severe retaliation has been largely discounted. ^

Will a continuation of indignant notes concerning such incidents deter their occurence in the future? Is the position of the United States in international affairs being enhanced by the passiveness with which such incidents are handled by our top- officials?

Are we reaching the point where our vvbrds of protest are considered hollow gestures by the Soviets and by other people of the world who have looked to the United States as the bulwark of freedom and democracy around the globe?

No Precedents

By HENRY HOWARD

Pindina Kicks In I

Set This Year

ir

By JAMES MARLOW

LOS ANGELES (AP)-A victory for Sen. John S. Kennedy of Massachusettswho seemed to have the presidential nomination sewed up before the Democratic convention opened will bring a gush of explanations, some too glib, some too pat, and some with only temporary significance.

Kennedy, for instance, beat the bushes all year looking for delegates, ran in the primaries, and visited most states while his closest rivals, Sens. Lyndon B. Johnson of Texas and Stuart Symington of Missouri, ran in no primaries, met far fewer people, relied more on contacts with profesional politicians.

But it doesnt follow that would-be presidents in 1964 will have to imitate Kennedy in the belief the more people they meet and the more publicity they get the better their chances. You dont have to look further than Adlai E. Stevenson for a, recent contrary example.

In 1952 he was governor of Illinois, admired by some Important politicians, did no campaigning, didnt want the nomination, was known to very few convention delegates, and hardly at all by most Americans- Nevertheless, he wound up with the nomination handed to him.

This year there seemed no doubt he yearned for a third chance, but as the convention opened he looked like a sad also-ran. He was by then a two-time loser In the presidential race, and the delegates were reluctant to take a chance on him again. He said he wonldnt ask them to.

It Just happened that in 1952 there were no outstanding candidates. In that kind of vaccu-um eloquent Stevenson looked like a natural. This year none of the Democratic candidates could be called a dominant figure.

Perhaps when that is the case

in the future hard work will pay off for some other candidate as it appeared to do this year for Kennedy, But the memory of the unwilling Stevenson of 1952 says this idea isnt necessarily so.

The fact that all the announced candidates this year were senators does not prove that the nation in Uie future will look more toward Congress for its presidents and less toward other public men. particularly governors who were more or less in political eclipse this year.

Por example: On the Republican side New Yorks Gov. Nelson A. Rockefeller would have been a standoutno Republican senator is close to him in prestige or public awareness of him if Vice President Richard M. Nixon hadnt built himself up through performance and contacts as the No. 1 man.

Johnson indicated on TV last week he felt an obligation, as Democratic leader of the Senate. to stay close to his Job. Therefore, he couldnt tear around the country, as Kennedy did, trying to line up delegates.

Instead he seemed to rely on the power of fellow senators and Democratic House members to rally support for him in a big way. This will look like a mistake in Strategy if Kennedy wins the nomination. But that wouldnt necessarily be true, either.

For instance, Johnson is from the South. That alone is a handicap to any politician looking for a presidential nomination at a time when the 'racial issue is still such a problem in the South.

But if Johnson's record in Senate leadership and votingparticularly on civil rights and labor had been satisfactory to big city Negroes and organized labor, satisfactory enough for them to support Wm. all of Kennedys efforts this year might have counted for nothing.

With two weeks of full-streng-th television under their belts, TV addicts became again able to relax nights following the fast and furious political advertising pace around here during the recent campaigning activities that marked the Democratic primaries.

Beginning last night, however, the poor addicts again began to squirm in their easy chairs. They now are confronted with a full week of ultra-complete coverage of the Democratic National Convention all live from LA.

Many of the rabid TV fans feel they cannot live through another siege. But they say, How can you win? Not one, but two, but all three networks are filling our living rooms with an abundance of public service whether we like it or not.

Sure, they say. we want to know whats going on, but do we have to be eyewitnesses to everything? Why should we have to watch all the wrangling, vote-selling, bet-placing, and cocktail partying going on out there.

When accused of knowing little and* caring less about the results of the national pow wow, the TV owl sect indignantly claims vital interest in the outcome but vows eternal disgust and pleads helpless frustration that everybody who watches TV must necessarily become an eyewitness to history.

Says one bird (owl), It aint that I go somethin against history. I'm interested. Honest I am. But from where I sit an watch all them goings on, I know I aint leanin no history,

Another one says, You know Im interested. A lot depends on who they wrangle over and nominate. But why do we have to watch every cotton - pickin minute of it? If theyd Just ask. Id ever say It was awright if theyd just break into whatever REAL program I was watchin and say who the nominee was. I dont even care if I was watchin Gunsmoke.

Now that owl is really willing to sacrifice, relinquishing a few seconds of the western owls western.

A particularly addicted owl claims the actions by all three networks are absolutely uncalled for. He says he knows for a fact their motives are malicious.

^Each one uvem, h argues, "is hryln to cut the rest uveras throats by outdoin* everbody. An thats awright with me. but they's making us loyal televis-sion-land folks suffer for their aforethought an malice. I'd say their actions Is first-degree. The general opinion of the owl people is aptly put by another: Well be o glad when the net-, works finally see the light and return to real television.

Get that? REAL television. N^yats real to the owls was put on' film for re and re and re-ruli anywhere from a week to 25 years ago.

With all their whining, fuming and fussing the addicts will simply have to learn that television, with its geometrically progressing increase in technological advances, is rapidly coming into its own to serve the public in its fullest potential as au on-the-spot news medium.

Other Ecditors Saying Auditing Travel Outlays

(Rocky Mount Telegram)

One of the most welcome accomplishments of Congress in Its as-yet-unfihished session was the adoption of specific rules of conduct on travel allowances and expense accounts. This was an item not only the legislative calendar at the beginning of the session, but one which became a hot issue as a result of the enterprise of two newspaper reporters, Don Obcrdorfer and Walter Pincua.

In a scries of articles on, flagrant abuses of expense account secrecy, these two reporters created sufficient public indignation to force an assortment of junkfet reforms through an obviously red-faced Congress.

For years the most .rudU^en-tary information about which congress spent how much for what in travel allowances has been locked in secrecy, although recurring exposes of individual abuses of travel secrecy mde it apparent to taxpayers who foot the bills that.

to some congressmen, travel allowances were little more than a private vacation account.

House members, who up to now have had no limit to traveling expenses, will receive no more than $25 a day travel allowance. and anything above $12 a day will require written approval by House officials in advance and a detailed accounting upon return. The General Accounting Office will review expenses before payment is authorized. Congressional delegations to international conventions and meetings wUl no longer enjoy mass immunity. Individual itemized expense accounts will be required for future trips, and these will be published in the Congressional Record.

If the General Accounting Office is now permitted to function in the manner for which it was created, the new rules of travel conduct will be a major victory for public disclosure of public business.

THE UNITED WAY

The Owl-folk will just have to learn to get their kicks from reality.

That would be one of tl greatest contributions TV could possibly make*.

Opinions

in

Interference in local government by Washington officials without knowledge or qualification is a form of tyranny. Carried to a logical extreme, such a policy could set up conditions making some- reas .o our region unfit for .Civilized residence.Charleston (B.C.) News and Courier.

A recognition of the burden that we are placing on future workers is long overdue and it is time that we considered this burden when we think in terms of adding new benefits with additions to that burden.-Rep. John W. Byrnes (Wisconsin).

Prince Charles of England went to a movie and had a lollipop. He can do just about anything any other little boy can do at a movie except get lost. Ariieville Cltiien.

Television is an improvement over radio. Now you can not only hear static but see it, too. Richmond (Ky.) Register.

"A new generation is growing up without ambition or courage, says sn expert on something else. No ambition because of no stairs to climb at the age of two; no codrage because of no bannisters to slide down at the age of six. The expert: a University of Malaya professor speaking to the American Institute of Architects. Thats the modern way of sayisg he likes two-story houses. Lumberton Robesonian.

GIVE

false

Health

fetish

By GEORGE E. SOKOLSKT Copyright, 19M, King Features Syndicate, Inc.

Always at this time, somebody gets all excited and proposes that candidates be examined for their health. The proposal is that a physician do the examining, but why not a psychiatrist? Precisely what can a physician predict over a four-year period? Can he tell that some time during the four or eight-year period a brain tumor will w will not develop?

How much can a cardiograph really tell? Have you ever heard of a man leaving the doctors table after a thorough examination and dropping dead on the doctors doorstep?

The Founding Fathers had more sense. They provided a Vice President tOi. take Uie Presidents place if the ^ latter died in office. That is about as much protection as any country can have. The rest must be left to God. The man whom many still regard as a wonderful President, Theodore Roosevelt* had tuberculosis when he was young and was sent to the Far West to regain his health. He became the apostle of the strenuous life. Woodrow Wilso'n died of a brain tumor, bu( before that he was looked upon as one of our more brilliant Presidents. Franklin D. Roosevhlt. the (miy President evw to hhve been elected for four terms, was crippled by polio and had to use a wheel chair. Among the present candidates. Lyndon Johnson once had a heart Attack and John Kennedy (mce had Addisons disease. Both are healthy men, able to do more than the average man, delivering addresses all over the country, working at speeches, travelling dis- ,, tances.

It is nonsense in 1960 to make a fetish of sickness. Look at Dwight D. Eis^hower and the physical and mental strains that he has borne since his heart attack and his operation.

The truth is that if one does not die, if he is not i^raid and has the will to live, he can carry on as, well after a heart attack as before. Even a cancer is not always a killer and if the danui thing is cut out fast, one goes ahead as before, carrying his load, whatever It may be.

True, not everybody has the physical constitution of an Eisenhower or an Adenauer, but more than physique is involved. Th^ will to live, the will to fight/'thbto go ahead these muetexist ih the person who has had a cardiac accident or a cancer operation. The Lord gave us two of most of our (Yaos and if we lose only one, we are as good as whole.

One does not require a complete heart to get along. If our' chemistry gets mixed up, wonders are done for us these days. There is no reason why a great brain needs a whole body. Suppose he lost part of it in war? Would we penaliae him?

Let us cease playing God.

The stethoscope and the fiuoro-scope and the . cardiograph do not decide whether,a man will make a good President. Beyond all these instruments, unmeasurable by any yet devised by man, are the soul and conscience and character. These are the qualities which make for greatness. George Washington used false teeth and Atra-ham Lincoln was lank and ungainly; are they not the noNest Presidents we have had?

The man who will be elected next November m^f be y(ng and strong in November, but what of his health In May? Who is so smart as to know what happens to the psyche of one who suddenly possesses power?

In this country, we have thus far been fortunate that none of our Presidents have gone mad in office. It could happen. And who can tell that years in advance? Who knows what a schlzo really is and when it jumps the line between reason and illusion?

Let us elect our President by our ballots not by the biood-pressure machines. Any observant patient knows that that is never a sure measure. In fact,

I whor ftUl^ have to watch these things a Toad of work

I caa (jarry nv)'^at I do not waste my enecgy building f*t but ute-H* to dt my work.

It WQuld make more sense investigating candidates wives than their livers. Nothing can strike a man harder'in such an office as the Pre'itdency than to have a wife who docs not care, or one who cares too much and meddles, I have one such In mind.

Perhaps when that is the case ing. T * | T

Strength For To(day StlcklGF Than Sugar IssuG

By EARL L. DOUGLASS TRIUMPH A great American inventor was asked last winter to address a scientific group on the topic Can We Produce Inventors? His position was that we can produce inventors provided men are not willing to face pen* haps a whole Ufe of failure. He made it plain that lost great inventions have been built on the negative experiments of a lot of men who worked, apparently failed, and died without seeing the thing brought forth for which they had hoped,

Are you willing to fall Intelligently? In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the author speaks of lho.se who having had wltne.s borne them through their faith, received not the promise, God having provided some better

thing concerning us. that apart from us they should not be made perfect. for centuries men had been contending and dying for certain spiritual values without seeing them bear fruit. The early Christians, and you apd I as their successorc.e ntered into the triumph which their sacrifice helped to bring about. They had failedintelligently.

Jesus faUed in the eyes of hLs generation, but his failure was so casmic in iUs significance and so universal in its vastnesa that complete spiritual fulfillment ha.1 lieen ofiered every human suul as the rejidilt of thU apparent ftlure.

In the mist of an age which underscorc.s success, remember that there is such a thing as fail-ine intelligently. And R is a noble achievement.

By ELMER ROESSNER Lets face it: We are in

a sticky oil puddle The sugar situation is sweeter. We have practically cut off Cuban sugar. We have stopped pouring close to $100,0(M),000 of the Amertoan housewives spending Into the Cuban economy. That wUl hurt. Already Cuba la talking about rationing. But oil problems are greater. First, we have an abundance of oil In the United State.s. Last nwnth Texas wells wore allowed to produce enly eight days supply under a system to relate production with demand.

Second, in consequence, producers are demanding that the government reduce oil Impoj'ts. B C. (before Castrot. Cuba required about 65,000 barrels of oil a day for comfort. Mast of the crude cams'jrlrom Venezu

ela. Now the three processing plants have been seized and Venezueland oil, which was largely financed by the American oil companies, has stopped coming in. Cuba is so short of hard currencies that it cannot buy it on its own account.

Russia has offered to supply Cuba with oil needed. It will difficult, but best guesses are that the Soviets can do it if they wish. The long ocean haul will make it more expensive, and the only way Cuba can pay for it Is with sugar, at depre.^a-ed prices, other products, and a few consciences.

In short. Cuba can get away with seizing American and Brit-hih plants and using Soviet oil. It wont be easy. There will be rtTurrlng .scarcities in Cuba; prices may have to be higher and the toll in Cuba'a subservi

ence to the Muscovitea may be great. But it can be done. PERIPHERAL TROUBLE

Meanwhile Venezuela is heading into trouble. Its Cuban market Is gone and part of its United States market is in danger, There are no other Important. immediate customers.

The economic situation there Is critical. There is already considerable unemployment. Further loss of sales will mean more. And if we are going to protect otir own oil industry, we capnot take up the slack.

At 4h,4me time, Mexico is coBcemed about a rising oil production;* It may be tempted to sell to Cuba, since It knows that it cannot increase sales to the United States at the present time.

We cannot stockpile any greater amounts of oil; we can

not use It ourselves; we cannot increase sales abroad much. We cannot increase domestic consumption much.

Cuba has its problems with oil; oura are not lew.

No simple solution is apparent.

WANT TRADING STAMPS

redemmed at home

There is a curious skirmish In the war over trading stamps.

The council of Sandpoint, Ida., pas.<>ed an ordinance declaring that the isguance of trading itampa that caniiot bt rc-itowneelr lucaily i a public nuisance, luiaiject to a $100 fine-

Seems that the city fathers are not opposed to stamps Ip themselves, but they object to the fact that their wives have to Journey 46 miles to Coeur dAlene to redeem them*i